The New York Mets will continue their road trip on the West Coast and visit the San Francisco Giants on Monday night to kick off a three-game series. They'll get a rematch against right-hander Chris Heston, who threw a no-hitter against them at Citi Field earlier this year.
New York (42-41) took two out of three against the Los Angeles Dodgers over the weekend thanks to their pitching staff. Noah Syndergaard and Steven Matz allowed one earned run over 12 innings of work on Friday and Sunday against a talented Dodgers lineup.
Jon Niese will get a crack at the struggling Giants (42-41) on Monday at 10:15 p.m. ET. Niese faced San Francisco earlier this year at Citi Field and surrendered four runs (two earned) on five hits and two walks over seven innings. The Mets won 5-4 after scoring two runs against the Giants' relievers late in the game.
Niese is 3-8 with a 3.90 ERA and 1.489 WHIP in 15 starts this year and trade rumors suggest the Mets have been shopping him, but the veteran has been solid in the month of June despite his 0-3 record over that span. He owned a 3.00 ERA and 1.33 WHIP with 26 strikeouts in five starts (33 innings).
The left-hander is 1-3 with a 2.92 ERA and 1.135 WHIP in eight career games (seven starts) against the Giants.
On the other hand, Chris Heston is 1-0 with a 0.00 ERA and 0.00 WHIP in one career start against the Mets.
Heston threw the first no-hitter of 2015 against the Mets back on June 9 in just his 13th career start. He hit three batters and struck out 11 in the 5-0 victory. The right-hander is now 8-5 with a 3.78 ERA in 16 starts.
However, it could be much different this time around. The Giants just went 0-6 on their East Coast road trip against the Miami Marlins and Washington Nationals as their offense and pitching struggled to put forth a solid collective effort. The pitching was knocked around by the Marlins and the bats only scored five runs in three games against the Nats.
They scored 17 runs in those six games and their starters had an ERA of 5.85.
San Fran took two out of three from New York at Citi Field back in early June, but the Mets look to take advantage of a worn down Giants club that just returned from Washington, D.C. after yesterday's Sunday Night Baseball matchup with the Nationals.
Check out the live stream for tonight's game here as well as the live radio broadcast here (SFG) or here (NYM).
